Father Michael Baker was accused of molesting 23 youngsters

In a scandal that implicated dozens of priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the case of Father Michael Baker is the one that Cardinal Roger Mahony has said troubles him the most.

An energetic priest who was popular with the young people in his congregations, Baker confided to Mahony during a spiritual retreat in late December 1986 that he'd molested two young boys from 1978-85.

Mahony has since acknowledged that he mishandled the Baker case by not calling police and pulling Baker from the ministry. Instead, Mahony followed what was then the established practice — keeping the allegations secret and allowing Baker to continue working in the archdiocese.

"We are dealing with an extremely serious and grave situation," Mahony wrote in a Dec. 24, 1986, memo to Baker, ordering him to undergo therapy at Foundation House, a now-defunct treatment center for pedophile clergy in New Mexico.

In an acknowledgment of the harm Baker had caused — although he now says he was naive about the long-term effects of sex abuse — Mahony also wrote that the archdiocese would offer help to the two victims, "so that any negative impact on their lives can be diminished as fully as possible."

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Over the next six months, Baker sent chatty missives to Mahony and to Thomas Curry, then the vicar of clergy, updating them on his progress in therapy and his hopes — and concerns — for his future.

In an undated letter to Curry — signed "with much admiration and affection" — Baker suggests that he be assigned to serve at a mission in Mexico to evade the threat of criminal or civil action and stay out of the Archdiocese for at least five years.

"The criminal statute of limitations — is that 5 years? Are there any statute of limitations civilly? I am very much aware that I am a jeopardy for the Archdiocese.

He also expressed appreciation for receiving a recent check and wrote he was "grateful to be on the Archd. payroll. Blessings on your thoughtfulness."

When Baker returned to L.A., with orders not to drink or have one-on-one contact with kids, Mahony and Curry remained concerned about their ability to shield the priest if he mentioned his relationships with boys during therapy.

"I see a difficulty here, in that if he were to mention his problem with child abuse it would put the therapist in the position of having to report him," Curry wrote in a June 1987 memo.

He then suggested other potential roles for Baker, such as marriage counseling, adult Bible study or working with older people for charity.

Baker was initially assigned to work with retired priests, but in 1991 embarked on a series of assignments, some only a couple of months long, as an administrator and fill-in priest at several local parishes — duties that gave him access to children.

According to the court documents, Baker was discovered in 1996 with a young man in his room in the rectory at St. Columbkille in South Los Angeles, but he told his supervisors that nothing untoward had happened.

The incident was referred to the Sexual Abuse Advisory Board, which had been formed two years earlier. The panel of clergy and lay members recommended that Baker be sent to a retreat house, and not be assigned any ministry, until his problems could be resolved. Instead, Baker was named associate pastor at the hospital ministry of St. Camillus de Lellis Center near USC.

That's where Baker was serving in 2000, when attorney Lynne Cadigan contacted the archdiocese with a claim that the priest had molested two brothers from 1984-99.

Without even filing a lawsuit, Cadigan negotiated a confidential $1.3 million settlement, with Baker paying $500,000 of the total. It's unclear how the priest came up with the money.

Under pressure from the archdiocese, Baker resigned from the priesthood in 2000.

Concern grew among church leaders as they delved into Baker's history and became aware of the number of youngsters he'd harmed.

Monsignor Richard Loomis, who had taken over as vicar of clergy, raised the issue of liability, as well as the well-being of victims.

"The liability issues involved aside," he wrote, "I think that course of complete (in)action would be immoral and unethical."

The church eventually began making announcements from the pulpits at churches where Baker had served, encouraging parishioners to contact police or the archdiocese to report misconduct.

According to a 2004 archdiocese report, Baker was accused of molesting 23 youngsters.

Most of those attacks fell outside of the statue of limitations, although he did plead guilty in 2007 to a dozen counts of molestation against two boys. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but was released in 2011 because of credit for time served.

Abuse allegations involving Baker account for $40 million of a $660 million settlement the Archdiocese reached with victims in 2007, according to published reports.

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